The Flies - 'High'
Coming across like a falsetto Jesus & Mary Chain the new single from ex-Spiritualized man Sean Cook's The Flies is thrusting, angry soul music with more than a nod to Depeche Mode at their most provocative. By no means is this the best example of the band's work from their first album 'All Too Human', but as an introduction it fares very well.
No Carbon Records
Video: Stream

Passenger - 'Walk You Home'
Having an absurdly high voice never stopped Only Ones singer Peter Perrett from achieving modest fame, and it shouldn't affect Passenger's Mike Rosenberg either. In fact, it's a voice which generally draws more attention than the prime jangle-pop that it straddles which is an unjustice really. A strong improvement on their first single and strong contenders for chart places if there's any justice...and there's not is there? I mean, as Mike explains, 'I'm the boy who eats on his own...I'm the boy who lives at home'...c'mon, make his day!
Chalkmark Records
Videos: Win Hi | Win Mid | Win Lo
Buy it now: iTunes

Voxtrot - 'Firecracker'
Voxtrot get stronger with every release and 'Firecracker' does not buck the trend. Boasting a killer chorus and a general sound that's refreshingly of another era this deals a swift blow to competition and hoists a flag in support of those still supporting the campaign for real indie.
Playlouder Recordings
Videos: Win Hi | Win Lo

Andrea Corr - 'Champagne from a Straw'
It get's you pissed quicker you know, if you drink through a straw. Usually I'd need a whole bottle of champagne to even entertain the idea of listening to Andrea's material, but with the grating Irish whistle sounds of The Corrs replaced by a carnival brass section and lyrics which bait 'poor little rich girls', this is a surprisingly acceptable pop listen.
Atlantic Records

Attack + Defend - 'DNA / Posh it Up'
The first release of Kruger Magazine's Singles Club gives us the electro-indie stylings of Attack + Defend. 'DNA' blends a resonating, rounded tech-bassline with the innate songwriting intelligence of Pavement offering a well-rounded combination of both styles rarely realised this well by their peers. 'Posh It Up' appears in demo version and comprises a muggy, rockabilly blues melody, somewhat clumsy and disjoint, but certainly entertaining.
Kruger Magazine Singles Club

INME - 'I Won't Let Go'
You will let go when I chop your fingers off one by one until you couldn't play another emo-riff if your life depended upon it. Uninspiring, hackneyed and perfect for that quiet fifteen year old who lives down the road.
Graphite Records
Videos: Stream | Youtube

The Mojo Fins - 'Pinata Face'
What looked like it may have been a tribute to the pudgy face of current chart star Jack Penate is actually an asutere, acoustic attack, layered with enchanting yet melancholy vocals, haunting hanging guitars and a thrilling climax. The musical equivalent of waking up to find an unexpected someone in your kitchen only to realise they've fixed you breakfast.
Amazon Music

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

In case that's a bit too far away for you to start getting excited about yet they've also announced tour dates. I imagine you can get tickets for the following dates pretty much straight away.

August 2007
21st - Brighton TBC
22nd - Nottingham Social
23rd - Bristol Thekla
26th - Birmingham Bar Academy
27th - London Durr @ The End (Single Launch Party)

Sept 2007
4th - Cardiff Barfly
5th - Manchester Night & Day
6th - Liverpool Academy
7th - Glasgow King Tuts
8th - Belfast The Basement
10th - London Hoxton Bar & Grill

And if that's not immediate enough for you then try a Voxtrot podcast on for size at this website. Enjoy!

Chris Unitt (View Original Article)

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

Kicking off the evening we have a band that I stay around to watch only out of sheer shock, as they appear to be a bizarre and frankly frightening marriage between the nu-metal shenanigans of Lostprophets and the husky-vocalled histrionics of Bonnie Tyler. I have to be honest here and say that after about their third song I zoned out, which is something I often do when I am either a) highly disturbed by something or b) incredibly bored. Tonight it was a mixture of both, and I can only compare the experience of seeing this nameless band live to that of standing next to somebody with odour problems and dandruff on a packed train journey home. You know, the sort of person who wears a t-shirt with a Red Indian and a wolf eating Lego under a full moon emblazoned across it. They huffed, the puffed and they bored me, but the rest of the audience for this Rock Sound-sponsored night seemed to find something fun in their frankly rather over-egged ‘come on guys, let’s do the gig RIGHT HERE’ act, and cheered them on. Maybe I’m just being a bit of a sourpuss, so I’ll just be charitable and say they’re not really my thing. And besides, I couldn’t really say they were shit on the night, as most of the lead singers family were in attendance, and they probably would have gutted me. I’m a music journalist, not a soldier, and in my profession it pays to be a cowardly custard from time to time.

Three more bands are slated to appear before the sonic treat that I’ve come here to review are due to come on, so I make my way to the bar area, where I happen to chance upon a good friend of CDX in Akira The Don. We chat about Hot Fuzz, Billy Bragg, Just William books and hugging hoodies for a bit, before the band we’re all here to see are ready to take to the stage.

Voxtrot are the sort of band your slightly fey, too-cool-for-school friend at college would have LOVED, and they could possibly be my New Favourite band too. From the opening strains of debut single ‘Mothers. Sisters, Daughters And Wives’ through to their even-more-upbeat new material, the Austin, Texas natives dance on my heartstring and make me feel as if I’ve chanced upon Fountains of Wayne playing tennis with The Strokes on the set of Grease - and tracks such as the Ben Folds-esque ‘My Biggest Fan’ sit alongside their newer tracks like a gang of Beatles fans on a sugar high at the back of the last jangle bus to New-Wave Central. Yes, they’re that good.

At the end of the show, I take a look at the crowd around me and realise that it’s made up of entirely different people to the crowd at the start of the night. The punk’n’metal kids are milling around in the bar area, sulking that their patch has been taken over by a gang of jangle-heads who like nothing better than to get a bit retrogressive from time to time. But the bar is full, and the management of the venue are rubbing their hands with unbridled glee at the site of so many people handing money over at the bar. The gig-going equivalent to squad rotation has been exploited to full effect, with the different fans of different bands drinking at different times making the gig-going experience a sweaty, rammed and expensive experience for all the punters involved, but you have to hand it to The Water Rats - they sure know how to squeeze the last pips out of your gig-going experience, but tonight it makes no difference - Voxtrot have satiated my thirst for the magnificent, and if you’ve got any soul left in that little bundle of flesh and bones you were dropped into at birth, let them into your life. They won’t let you down.

Ben Goldrun (View Original Article)